Chương 118: Chapter 116

I observe the Yushi with the Bàizhān, with the pen a finger's width from the paper and his gaze lost in some point between the ink and the air, as if he were still processing what Lianhua had said and were not sure whether to write it down. My patience with that agent begins to dry up, but my smile is not perturbed.

"Excuse me again", I tell him with the same sweet tone.

"Let me remind you that your work is to record everything that is said in this meeting. Everything. Not only what the Zhāohuán says, but also what my Fei Yi says, the exactitude of a report is the guarantee of its usefulness, is it not?" Yushi Xuang closes his eyes for an instant, inhales deeply with a force barely under control and reopens them to fix them on his subordinate, who this time does not bother to look at him and limits himself to beginning to write as if his life depended on it.

But I, after two stops, no longer trust him. So, without abandoning the smile but with a tone that in reality has nothing innocent about it and that nearly all those present in the room have enough experience to recognize, I speak aloud.

"Lianhua", I tell her with that feigned amiability.

"Please, do me a small favor. Come closer and check that what the kind scribe of the Yushitai is writing corresponds to what is really being spoken about in this meeting. I would not like for an agent with so many responsibilities to commit an involuntary error that he would afterward have to drag along the rest of his career."

Lianhua does not need to be told twice, and with a steel-like gaze that appears on her face with the same speed with which clouds appear before a storm, she takes the few steps that separate her from the agent with the Bàizhān and plants herself by his side in a position that leaves the poor man not the slightest room to turn the tablet, nor to cover the paper, nor to make absolutely any little trick he might have been considering.

And she begins to read what is written with the silent concentration of someone who knows exactly what to look for. Yushi Xuang, faced with that little scene, finally takes a step forward. His gaze has hardened entirely, and when he speaks, he does so with a voice that no longer has anything measured about it.

"Zhāohuán", he tells me with a clearly reproachful tone.

"Are you, at this moment, doubting the professionalism of the Yushitai?" The trap of the question is rather obvious, because if I reply that I am, I am insulting an entire imperial institution. But the trap, besides being obvious, is rather clumsy, because my reply has been prepared from long before he formulated it.

"Not at all, Yushi Xuang", I reply with the amiable smile still firmly in its place.

"I do not doubt at all the professionalism of the Yushitai, an institution that deserves all the respect of any subject of the empire." I make a pause so that the next phrase has its space.

"What I do doubt is something else", I continue letting the tone become a bit more serious, without abandoning the amiability but modulating with care.

"And that is the professionalism of certain specific men who have decided to present themselves, without prior warning, at a medical consultation to interrogate alone an eleven-year-old girl, instead of doing so in the presence of her mother as would be much more decent, much more polite, and, above all, much more in accordance with the habitual protocol of the Yushitai itself."

And then, without waiting for a reply, I look at the agent with the Bàizhān, who now has Lianhua planted at his side like an unsheathed sword, and dedicate to him my most amiable smile.

"Please, write down all of that as well", I tell him with the same cloying sweetness as before.

"Especially the part about the eleven-year-old girl and the absent mother, since it is important for the integrity of the report." The agent of the Bàizhān, now with Lianhua breathing over his shoulder, doesn't dare stop for even an instant and writes at a speed that suggests he is going to need several more sheets of paper before this meeting ends. Yushi Xuang presses his lips together. It is a small gesture, but enough for me to understand that my arrow has reached where it was meant to reach.

"Zhāohuán", he resumes with a voice a notch more tense and clearly trying to recover control of the interrogation.

"Another question, if you will allow me. What is the reason why the City Guard, instead of attending immediately to the place of the incident, was delayed taking notably more time than it should have taken in an emergency of this magnitude?" That question does catch me completely off guard. Not because it is a complicated question to reply to in itself, but because, until Yushi Xuang formulated it, I had not stopped to think about it.

Between the stupor under the rubble, the urgency of getting Lianhua out, the appearance of the man with the sword and everything that came after, I never sat down to calculate how long I had been unconscious, how long it had taken me to get out, or at what exact moment the guard had arrived. Even so, I manage for my expression not to show any surprise and my voice comes out as calm as before.

"Yushi Xuang", I reply with a small inclination of the head.

"You will understand that that question is something you will have to direct to the City Guard itself, since I do not believe you really expected an eleven-year-old girl to know in detail the internal protocols of action of the guard, its average response times to emergencies, or the specific reasons for which a delay might have been produced on a given day." I make a pause and add, with a tone slightly more innocent than necessary.

"I, simply, was beneath the rubble and barely have an idea of how long I spent down there", I continue.

"Although, of course, if the inquiries of the Yushitai about the City Guard reach any interesting conclusion, I would be delighted to find out once that information becomes public knowledge." From there, the interrogation enters into what, in another era and another life, I would have recognized as a hostile deposition session. Yushi Xuang attempts, with each question, to put me in an uncomfortable position.

Why I was wearing those clothes, why I went with so little escort, why I ventured so deep into the city, why I passed by that street, why I trusted those particular escorts for such an irregular outing. And I, for each question, return to him a reply that is technically true, and besides, from a political perspective, absolutely impossible to use afterward without the result being worse for whoever wanted to use it than for me. Each reply comes out light, amiable, perfectly polite, and absolutely impermeable.

And each reply, besides, earns from Yushi Xuang a gaze a bit sharper than the previous one, while Lianhua, at her post next to the Bàizhān, goes on diligently checking every character that the poor scribe traces on the paper. And while all this is happening, the Ruīyī Junning, oblivious to the little verbal combat or, rather, deliberately oblivious to it, keeps working on my legs with the same professional concentration with which she began.

She finishes examining the right leg, applies an ointment of vaguely bitter aroma that makes me feel a cool tingling on the skin, places a clean bandage on it with precise wrappings, releases the bandage of the left leg, repeats the examination, repeats the ointment, repeats the bandage. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

And just as Yushi Xuang is preparing to ask what I suspect is his next captious question, the Ruīyī Junning rises, shakes her apron with a couple of efficient pats and smiles at me.

"It is done, Zhāohuán", she tells me.

"I have finished." Perfect. I turn my head slowly toward Yushi Xuang and let the amiable smile, still firmly in its place, recover the nuance from before.

"Yushi Xuang", I tell him with a calm voice.

"As I told you at the beginning, I was going to have the courtesy to answer your questions for the time that the examination of my legs would last. Now that the Ruīyī Junning has finished, this conversation also ends." I make a brief pause, just enough for the contrast of tone to be evident.

"If you have more questions to ask me, you are free to come and find me at the Pavilion of the Scent of Clouds", I continue.

"There, in the presence of my mother, I will answer with the same pleasure to everything you may need to ask. But until then, regretting it very much, this is all I am going to answer." Yushi Xuang hesitates, and it is not a long hesitation, nor visible to someone who is not paying attention, but it is an unmistakable hesitation. It is then that I realize I am not the only one waiting for a reply.

The Ruīyī Junning looks at him with her brow furrowed, clearly disposed, if necessary, to remind him in whose study he is and whose study it is. The five Nei Wei who entered with us look at him with that imperturbable expression that hides, without disguising it too much, the exact amount of violence they are prepared to exercise if the situation requires it.

And even Lianhua, from her post next to the Bàizhān, has lifted her gaze from the paper and is looking at Yushi Xuang with that professional expression of hers which, if one knows what lies behind it, seems rather less professional and rather more like the prelude to something unpleasant. Yushi Xuang, faced with the small garden of feminine gazes converging on him, lets out a sigh that he tries not to make sound too defeated and turns toward his men.

"Gather everything", he orders them with a tense voice.

"We are leaving." The agent with the Bàizhān does not wait half a second. He caps the inkwell, cleans the pen with a small rag, gathers the sheets he has written and stores them carefully in one of the lateral compartments, folds the tablet against his chest and stands ready to leave with a speed that betrays more relief than an imperial functionary in the full discharge of his duties should probably show.

The four bow, in a formation that is perfectly correct as far as protocol is concerned, although visibly hurried for the persons present, turn about and head toward the door. But before the last one crosses the threshold, I decide that this little performance cannot end without one last note on my part.

"Yushi Xuang", I tell him raising my voice a bit to make sure he hears me.

"I hope, for the sake of the institution to which you belong, that the report written here today shall be delivered without problems to the archive of the Yushitai. Soon I will send someone to confirm that it has been so." Yushi Xuang does not bother to turn to reply, he limits himself to continuing onward with his back straight and, together with his three companions, leaves the study in a charged silence. The door closes behind them with a dry thud that says more things than Yushi Xuang would probably wish.

And then, after that small tension, a silence falls upon the study that lasts just long enough for all of us to breathe in at the same time. I breathe slowly, letting my shoulders, which had been rigid for too long, relax as Lianhua returns to her place by my side with the silent efficiency of always, the Nei Wei recover their habitual posture, slightly less tense than a minute ago, and the Ruīyī Junning, who is still standing next to me with her hands crossed over her apron, finally shows a small smile.

I return the smile, give her a couple of seconds to enjoy the small satisfaction of having seen a high official of the Yushitai leave her study with less bearing than he entered with, and, now yes, I focus on what should really have been occupying this while.

"Ruīyī Junning", I tell her with a tone much more relaxed than the one I had been wearing throughout the interrogation.

"Focusing on more important things than the small visit we have just had, how are my legs?" The Ruīyī Junning lets out a small contained laugh, that laugh that professionals release when a patient abruptly changes the subject, and, with no further comment, she re-enters her medical mode.

"Your legs are very well, Zhāohuán", she replies.

"You only have left some superficial scratches that, thanks to the Blood Regeneration Pill that was administered to you, are already in a very advanced process of cicatrization." She makes a brief pause, as if giving me time to process the news, and continues.

"If the Zhāohuán wished to take another Blood Regeneration Pill, the scratches would finish closing before the day ends and tomorrow morning your legs would be as if nothing had happened", she adds.

"But, in my professional opinion, for the scratches you have left that would be a waste. If you let them heal naturally, in three or four days at most no trace of them will remain." I nod slowly as I make the mental calculation. Three or four days without a pill compared to one night with a pill. The pill, moreover, I do not in the least believe is as cheap as the fact that it was administered to Xia without so much debate might suggest, and as the Ruīyī Junning rightly says, the scratches are only scratches.

"Then I will wait", I tell her.

"As they don't bother me and the projection is for just a few days, I see no reason to waste a pill that may be more useful to another patient." The Ruīyī Junning inclines her head with a small smile of professional approval.

"It is a sensible decision, Zhāohuán", she tells me. And then, with that resolved, I move on to the question that matters most to me of all the ones I was going to ask her.

"One last thing", I tell her.

"With the Bone Regeneration Pill that is going to be administered to her, when will my handmaiden be completely recovered?" I see the Ruīyī Junning take an instant to reply, I imagine in order to make the calculation with the precision the question deserves.

"The girl has not yet opened the Nature Gate and has not yet finished the Tempering of Bones and Tendons", she finally replies.

"That means her body takes advantage of the pill more slowly than someone with a more advanced cultivation. Even so, in her specific case, I calculate that in two days, at most three, she will be completely recovered and it will be as if her bones had never been broken." I let out a sigh of relief upon hearing her.

Although three days seems like a lot to me, especially considering that Lianhua has recovered in only one, in my previous life a small girl, with several broken bones like Xia, would have spent weeks in a hospital bed, then months in rehabilitation sessions, and if things had gone well, would end up with minor lasting effects and a medical follow-up of years. That if she had the luck to be able to pay for it. If not, she would simply have lasting effects the rest of her life and would get used to them.

And here, in this absurd world where one can fix bones with a single pill, Xia is going to be perfectly well in those three days. So I swallow any complaint I might have about that time and replace it with a sincere smile, one of the few sincere smiles I have put on during all this while.

"Thank you very much, Ruīyī Junning", I tell her.

"I am very grateful for your patience, your discretion and, above all, your professionalism throughout the morning. Not every day does one have the courtesy of continuing to work with a patient while a small theatrical performance of the Yushitai is being staged in the room." The Ruīyī Junning lets out another small laugh, this time somewhat more relaxed, and bows with a formality that no longer has anything protocolary about it and rather much of complicity.

"It is an honor to serve the Zhāohuán", she replies to me.

"And, if you will allow me to say it, it has also been a small pleasure to see how you handled it." I return the inclination of the head, mentally appreciate that in this small corner of the Imperial Palace there is a person who seems decent, and turn my head toward Lianhua.

"Lianhua", I tell her.

"It is time to return to the Pavilion." Lianhua, who had been waiting for that phrase all this while with the patience of always, approaches the chair and inclines slightly.

"As you order, Zhāohuán Wen", she tells me. As she seats me again in my chair I add, with a tone that mixes sarcasm with tiredness.

"We have two things to do as soon as we arrive", I tell her.

"The first, to arrange for the payment to the Ruīyī Junning to reach her before the day ends, as you promised." I make a very brief pause and let out the second part without disguising the sigh.

"And the second, to tell my mother about the small ambush that the Yushitai has just laid for us", I continue.

"Because I have absolutely no doubt that, sooner or later, someone will appear at the Pavilion with a different and more reasonable list of questions." Lianhua inclines her head barely, in a gesture that in another person would be a smile and in her is the closest thing to a smile she is going to allow herself in the presence of the Ruīyī Junning.

"Then, Zhāohuán Wen, let us not keep Guifei Xiang waiting", she replies to me. And, with that, she pushes my chair toward the door of the study to leave the Tàiyīyuàn.